Syria

NOVANEWS   Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Protesters in the Syrian town of Banias on Tuesday, in an image from a cellphone. Demonstrations were reported in several cities. By ANTHONY SHADID Published: April 19, 2011 BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Syrian government tried to placate protesters with declarations of sweeping reform on Tuesday while also issuing harsh threats of reprisals if demonstrations did not come to an end, as one of the Arab world’s most repressive countries struggled to blunt the most serious challenge to the 40-year rule of the Assad family. The mix of concession and coercion came hours after the police, army and the other forces of an authoritarian state were marshaled to crush one of the biggest gatherings yet by protesters bent on staging an Egyptian-style ...

NOVANEWS State Department spokesman dismisses WikiLeaks’ notion that Washington wants to topple Syrian regime; insists Assad ‘needs to address ‘legitimate aspirations of his people’ The United States is not working to undermine the Syrian government but President Bashar Assad “needs to address the legitimate aspirations of his people,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said on Monday. “No we are not working to undermine that government,” Toner said in response to a question at a media briefing, adding the US government was working to promote democratic processes in Syria and elsewhere in the world. Conspiracy Theory? Report: US funding Syrian opposition / Associated Press WikiLeaks: Documents show US gave at least $6 million to Assad’s opponents by Sept. 2010 “The Syrian gov...

NOVANEWS crescentandcross Homs protesters were reportedly shot 'in cold blood'; deaths come a day after three mourners were killed after attending a funeral of a man killed by Syrian security forces. Syrian forces killed 12 protesters overnight in the central city of Homs in clashes after the death of a tribal leader in custody, a rights campaigner in Homs said on Monday. "Homs is boiling. Security forces and the regime thugs have been provoking armed tribes for a month now. But civilians in large numbers also took to the streets in different areas of Homs last night and they were shot at in cold blood," the rights campaigner told Reuters. Boys hold a banner during a demonstration in the the Syrian port city of Banias April 17, 2011. Photo by: Reuters...

NOVANEWS by crescentandcross   Leaked diplomatic cables allege that Saad Al-Hariri suggested isolating Bashar Al-Assad and forming a coalition of Muslim Brotherhood and former regime figures to take power Ahram Online , A WikiLeaks document published by a Lebanese daily claims that former prime minister and head of the Future Movement Saad Al-Hariri called for the isolation of the Syrian regime in 2006. Hariri reportedly suggested replacing Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad with a coalition that included the Muslim Brotherhood and several individuals that were once part of the regime. Hizbullah-friendly Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar published the leaked documents the day Syrian authorities accused “Lebanese forces.” including a Future Movement MP, of supplying  a “terrorist gro...

NOVANEWS   The president’s speech yesterday was about a good as Bashar al-Assad could have done. If Assad’s first speech did him no favors, this one served him well. I was apprehensive at first when I saw him speaking without a written script, as he does not seem to have a professional speech writing staff that he trusts. But ultimately he was well served to show his personality, which is appealing. He was straight forward, serious and showed a studied understanding of the countries problems and his regimes short comings. He began by recognizing the “fajwa” or gap that separates the people from the regime. This may have been the single most important line of his talk. The rest was to explain why that gap existed and what he would do to close it. He spoke about the “karama” or dignity...

NOVANEWS by crescentandcross by Jim Lobe   Despite the clear opposition the Obama administration and apparent ambivalence on the part of the right-wing government in Israel, neoconservative hawks here have set their sights on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who they hope will be the next domino to fall victim to what the so-called “Arab Spring.” In a much-noted op-ed published Saturday by the Washington Post, Elliot Abrams, who served as George W. Bush’s top Mideast adviser, called for the administration to take a series of diplomatic and economic measures similar to those taken against Libya before the U.S. and NATO’s military intervention, to weaken Assad’s hold on power and embolden the opposition. He was joined the same day by the Wall Street Journal‘s hard-line editori...

NOVANEWS   Source–Haaretz   In first address since the outburst of anti-government protests, Syrian President says foreign instigators infiltrated a popular movement with a genuine desire for political reform. Syria will withstand the foreign conspiracy and plots hatched against it, President Bashar Assad said in a Damascus speech on Wednesday, saying that ongoing anti-government protests that have gripped parts of Syris are meant to enforce an “Israeli agenda.” In his speech, the Syrian president condemned what he called foreign “plots hatched against our county,” saying that the people and leadership of Syria would withstand them through unity. “Syria is a target of a big plot from outside, both internally and externally. If there is something happening it is using the cov...

NOVANEWS   Posted by: Sammi Ibrahem Chair of West Midland PSC By Jade Salhab You might dislike President Bachar el Assad but he is ironically the best-positioned person to steer a non-sectarian transition to democracy in Syria and the Arab world. If there is anything we learned from the incredible cataclysm in the Middle East, it’s the following: the quest for freedom and dignity is a) universal and b) inevitable. Democracy - the natural offspring of this quest - can be postponed by oppression but it eventually strikes back… sometimes with a vengeance. And this is precisely the problem. As a young Lebanese political activist, I have seen first-hand how brutal the Syrian regime can get. It has managed to survive for twenty-five years by oppressing its people with an efficie...